For aliens, I think he abandoned N'Grath pretty quickly because he wasn't satisfied with the look. And he had to abandon the "Bureau 13" plotline (or more precisely fold it into others) because that term was already copyrighted.

JMS had all sorts of contingencies for disruptions in cast, etc., and used several of them -- but I'll bet he didn't have a plan for "the network exploded but you'll still get to do the last season anyway."

Yea, as usual JMS seems to have been the first in the USA, at least. After B5, stories with arcs did suddenly become all the rage. Now, shows are being allowed to write a wrap up at least, or so it seems to me. It isn't like the old days where it was common for shows to just suddenly stop in the middle of cliff-hangers season finales.

I think/hope JMS is writing a biography that may include some of those anecdotes. One involves the sudden departure of Sinclair due to the actor's health problems. Not only did the departure have to be written around, but his eventual fate turned into one of the best plot twists in television science fiction history. An amazing twist. And I don't think any of that was planned, not originally.

I think/hope JMS is writing a biography that may include some of those anecdotes. One involves the sudden departure of Sinclair due to the actor's health problems. Not only did the departure have to be written around, but his eventual fate turned into one of the best plot twists in television science fiction history. An amazing twist. And I don't think any of that was planned, not originally.

Michael’s leaving on Ill health grounds presented a problem as there was no out for Sinclair. So Joe did some fancy footwork on the keyboard and tweaked the arc. He exploited Sinclair’s connection to the Minbari and the missing 24 hour mystery, promising Michael that he would wrap Sinclair’s story arc in spectacular fashion.

He certainly did that. And still got to follow something of his original story, too. Maybe not as impressive as the Valen backstory, but hey it did resolve a horrible cyclic war that wasted entire planetary systems. That's pretty good, too.

I think/hope JMS is writing a biography that may include some of those anecdotes. One involves the sudden departure of Sinclair due to the actor's health problems. Not only did the departure have to be written around, but his eventual fate turned into one of the best plot twists in television science fiction history. An amazing twist. And I don't think any of that was planned, not originally.

Oh? Was that why Sheridan arrived for season 2? I had been lead to believe by the guy that introduced me to B5 years ago that JMS had decided that there was too much plot to give to one character, so he split it between the two of them instead.

Or are both true and you're referring to something that happened later?

I think/hope JMS is writing a biography that may include some of those anecdotes. One involves the sudden departure of Sinclair due to the actor's health problems. Not only did the departure have to be written around, but his eventual fate turned into one of the best plot twists in television science fiction history. An amazing twist. And I don't think any of that was planned, not originally.

Oh? Was that why Sheridan arrived for season 2? I had been lead to believe by the guy that introduced me to B5 years ago that JMS had decided that there was too much plot to give to one character, so he split it between the two of them instead.

Or are both true and you're referring to something that happened later?

Joe is on record as saying had Sinclair stayed it would have been pushing credulity for him to have a connection to both the Shadows AND the Minbari, so planned to bring a Sheridan like character in during Season 2.

Interestingly in the pitch document from September 1989 Sinclair is described as a widower.